Harsh Times at Yarmouth High. New Head introduces new rules including sick buckets in classrooms.

[HelenaDove]

Posted this on another thread but i think it deserves a thread of its own.

HelenaDove Mon 11-Sep-17 21:06:41
www.edp24.co.uk/news/education/phones-confiscated-for-weeks-and-sick-buckets-in-the-classroom-tough-new-rules-at-norfolk-school-1-5188326
Add message | Report | Message poster HelenaDove Mon 11-Sep-17 21:08:44
“You never lie and make excuses like, ‘I just wanted to put something in the bin’. We all know children say things like that to get out of work. You never pretend to be ill to get out of work because we expect you to work through it. If you feel sick we will give you a bucket. If you vomit - no problem! You’ve got your bucket. That’s probably all your body wanted - to vomit. If you are really ill we will make sure you get all the attention you need."

JESUS WEPT.

I wonder how much 'community outreach' they will do. One of the things that the Head thatturned around our local comp did was try to put the school at the centre of the community. Both in getting the kids out and involved in working in the community and getting the local community involved in the school.

Whether In made a huge difference to most kids, I don't know. But I suspect a number of 11-13 year olds that were heading towards a lot of involvement with the police changed directions because of it.

I don't know that Michaela's ethos and narrow focus would have the same effect.

Bloody hell, noble.

twitter.com/edarcherthinks/status/907677749896204288

The response to I feel sick should be go along to the sick bay, if faking, will stop, if not in the right place to be looked after

Sick bay?

Why would it stop because you are sent to lie down in a nice quiet room w no supervision? Not even a quiet room if a few of your mates pull a similar stunt.

Bloody hell noble I do hate being right about stuff like this.

How unsurprising.

"When you say what's 'in it' for the kids, don't you think there are greater opportunities, giving them a better education enables them to be more mobile, move where there are jobs and seek a career/ better future."

Yes, I do. I really do. Which is why I think there needs to be a joined up coherent approach based on inspiration, prospects, a disciplined but empathetic approach to building confidence and ambition.

I would take kids on working exchanges in different cities, preferably countries, rather than training them to pace the same narrow corridors in silence.

According to Tim's twitter feed the Head has contacted the parents of the child with autism and is meeting with them tomorrow.

Slightly off topic but this popped up about the head of one of the other schools run by the same trust www.edp24.co.uk/news/education/great-yarmouth-academy-principal-suspended-following-incident-at-quay-pride-pub-1-5191398

I do think some of these policies are really restrictive, and there are definitely some SEN children who will not cope within this system, but there are more children (SEN and not) who will benefit.

I am always shocked and disgusted with the amount of bad behaviour that is excused, allowed, supported etc.. in some schools. Not every badly behaved child has SEN, and not every SEN child is unable to control their behaviour. Excusing poor behaviour by using a SEN label is doing a disservice to the child, because it tells them you don't expect them to be better, to achieve anything, to be successful. Letting a child do what they want and not requiring they learn, attend, respect staff and other children, is not doing what's best for that child.

Schools have got to have standards, and people not able to, or not willing to, meet those standards should not ruin things for everyone else. Class time should not be spent with teachers debating with pupils over basic respect. Or having to manage one child who is taking up 90% of the class time and attention.

Rules like this don't mean the teachers don't care, they just care equally about everyone and think that all the children have an equal right to time, attention, and education.

Does anyone remember the story about the private university offering a knowledge-based PGCE? www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.tes.com/news/school-news/breaking-news/exclusive-private-university-launches-first-knowledge-based-pgce%3famp

Guess where that will be taught? The Hewett School in Norwich which was controversially taken over by the Inspiration Trust a couple of years back, the same Trust which runs the Yarmouth Charter school. The Hewett apparently closed down its sixth form, informing Y11 while they were sitting their GCSEs and after they'd been accepted to the sixth form. The PGCE will be run in the old sixth form building, now conveniently empty.

So the Inspiration Trust are possibly not to be trusted to have the best interests of kids at heart, have other ties with Michaela (on board for the new PGCE) and were probably only too happy to hand one of their seaside schools over to Wingman Baz for his coastal Michaela experiment.

I fail to see why being unable to make eye contact is such a major aberration?

There's a bit of a debate about that on a thread leading from one of Tim's tweets, BishopBrennan. Particularly when it comes to the rule about always tracking the teacher during lessons.

Rafals That's interesting, do you have a link? The eye contact rule is one that I think is unnecessary, you can look at someone without actually making eye contact, and pay attention too.

Or you can even concentrate better not giving eye contact 🙄

I'll see if I can find it again. There wasn't much too it.

But the subject of gaze aversion and cognitive overload did come up.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3627297/

As a maths teacher, I don't want the kids looking at me, I want them looking at the board! I think 'eyes front' is a far more useful command. They can listen to me talk without looking at me directly.

Eye contact can be annoying if you are trying to tell a kid off and they are deliberately staring over your shoulder or turning away and you can tell it's because they're being arsey, so sometimes you do want to ask for eye contact or at least to look at you. But obvious exceptions should be made for when it's a kid who is not just being an arse.

Ffs if the child really is sick they won't be continuing lessons but 95% of the time the child is saying they feel sick either a) as a ruse or b) due to anxiety about the subject.

Noble I missed that about PGCE/Hewett, but Inspiration Trust is growing rapidly round here - perhaps because other options are getting a bad reputation...Thing is, the schools do all take different approaches depending on the head it seems. The primary mentioned below had some very contentious policies a couple of years ago (before current head- who it seems may be on her way out too now...).

Yes. From what I've read it doesn't strike me as a trust like ARK who have trust wide policies. The head seems to retain a certain amount of control.

The way the Trust is positioning itself I'd be worried if I worked for them that Gt Yarmouth is Phase I. Baz seems to have got the headship job in the dying days of August with a current head still in place. This seems odd, unless you see it as an experiment.

www.inspirationtrust.org/attachments/download.asp?file=678&type=pdf

The document they've released is interesting....

Hah, the original document has been rewritten and toned down a hell of a lot! (Plus needs a proof-read....at least one word missing).

Thing is, people will read that and wonder what on earth people were concerned about. The original document was just bonkers.

Yes, I read that last night. Unfortunately for them there are still some copies of the original floating around.